It's all greek to me!

---

Geo: 37.9833, 23.7333

The intrepid explorers awoke from hibernation & decided that we were itching for a new adventure and choose Athens as the place to explore.

After an early start we headed to Stansted for our flight to Athens - brilliant flight and even arrived early. After a wobbly start trying to decipher the metro we hopped on and headed in to the centre. We firstly decided to check into the hotel so we could deposit the bags and start the exploration early. The hotel is aptly called the Acropolis View and thankfully off our balcony we have a perfect view of the beautiful Acropolis.

Once we'd dropped off our bags we headed to the foot of the Filopappou Hill which was a perfect place for us to start. We set off through the beautiful wooden path until we stumbled across the Prison of Socrates, which is the exact spot that is thought Socrates was imprisoned. After Nicky's failed attempt to deposit Simon there we pondered onwards. As we mad our way further up the hill, the trees cleared to give us a perfect view of the magnificent Acropolis. This is a definite sight to behold and was magnificent to see it so clearly (despite the fact the Greeks have frustratingly tried to hide it behind erected scaffolding!).

After some more climbing we got to the top of the hill which not only gave us more sights of the Acropolis but also of the whole of Athens. The city looked massive and showed how much exploring we have ahead of us - we could also see the sea from there too! There was also the Monument of Filopappou which was built in 114 AD - so as you can imagine was another amazing thing to see. We then continued our exploration of the hill to see what other hidden treasures we could find. Luckily for us the it was full of amazing sights such as the 16th Century Church of Agios Dimities Loumbardiaris. We then admired more breathtaking views over Athens from the Hill of the Nymphs & the Hill of the Pynx.

We decided to wander into the city to find some food to reenergise us after all that walking, however on the way we came across the amazing Odeum of Herodes Atticus which is a theatre built in 161 AD and is still used today. We then wandered up into the Plaka area and ate some very tasty Greek food. After our rumbling tummy's were all satisfied we continued to explore the Plaka area and went to Syntagma square and wandered the streets before heading back to the Hotel for a well deserved rest.

However, we could not be true explorers without finishing the day by heading to the roof terrace of the Hotel to admire the Acropolis lit up in the night sky. This was a beautiful way to end our first day in Athens.

---

Comments

[mam]

Looks great X enjoy x